Wednesday, August 31, 2005

PAYPAL INTRODUCES MICROPAYMENT PRICING

Big move. Wonder if Google Wallet is moving into this space too? This is definitely a must have for our new platform since we're offering a bunch of cool services that will have micropayments attached. My friend, Max, who rarely blogs here would definitely be interested since his online gaming company is setting up shop in the U.S. soon.

PayPal, the global online payment service, today announced new micropayments processing fees for digital goods. The new pricing will provide merchants with a more affordable way to process payments for low-cost digital content such as video games, online greeting cards, news articles, mobile phone content and digital music. PayPal's micropayments pricing is designed to give customers the convenience of a-la-carte purchases, such as 99-cent downloadable ringtones, without having to sign up for annual subscriptions or pre-funded payment accounts.

An extension of PayPal's existing payment service for digital music providers, PayPal's new micropayments pricing is designed especially for payments less than $2. The new fees will enable merchants to process payments at a rate of 5 percent plus 5 cents per transaction. Because of the reduced fixed fee, merchants can save 40 to 60 percent when processing low-cost payments, compared to the industry's current payment processing rates of approximately 2 percent plus 20 to 30 cents per transaction. (full article)